Youths on rampage as 12 die in Benue auto crash

MAKURDI—Irate youths of Tyo Mu, an outskirt of Makurdi town, Wednesday, barricaded the ever busy Makurdi-Gboko highway after 12 members of the community were crushed in a ghastly auto accident.

The angry mob barricaded the highway with stones, fallen trees, electric poles and other objects, hindering free flow of traffic on the highway for several hours.

Vanguard gathered from eyewitnesses that three of the victims were crushed last Tuesday, while nine others were killed few days ago on the same spot.

Confirming the incident, spokesperson for the community, Emmanuel Ingyough, lamented that “so far the community has lost about 12 persons to road accidents in the last one month.

“The driver of one of the vehicles, a Volvo station wagon, that hit and killed people on Tuesday, took to his heels abandoning the damaged vehicle.”

According to him, another car had hit an elderly man, Orkuma Ukagye in the early hours of Tuesday, “who later died at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Makurdi.

“Those that died on the spot included Iorundu Angbem and a tractor operator who was simply identified as Jaki, but the only surviving victim, Iorbume Ingyough was still receiving treatment at the FMC, Makurdi.”

Emmanuel lamented that the aggrieved members of the community were forced to protest the recklessness of some motorists who daily ply the ever busy highway, saying, “we’re only registering our pains and the need for the authorities to do something about the recurrent avoidable deaths we have been recording in our community.”